Count Down Begins

We've past the last of the rough in inspections so we could move on to sheetrocking the last areas upstairs.

Then came the texture, which definitely makes a difference.

Now we're on to painting....so far it's the base, casing and doors-which took over the entire upstairs.

Framing, insulation and furnace upstairs.

The upstairs is progress. Take a look: 

My bathroom has framed walls and a tub.

They added an arch going into the hallway for the east side bedroom and the upstairs bath. I think it's a great detail.

 The west-side bonus room is making progress as well.

 The furnace is in place....now that the weather is warming I'll actually be able to use the A/C this year.

Cabinets are done!

Yippee, the kitchen and master bath cabinets are done and I love them! 

Alan King and his guys did a fantastic job.

This bookcase & display cabinet are at the right of the desk.

Soon that hood vent will be installed in the center arched cabinet, 

which a great detail Alan and guys custom built.

 The doors on the right are hiding my washer and dryer. I had a dilemma and Alan designed a great solution.

This corner cabinet has tons of storage!

Another Section of Fence

My brother, Vernon, came down and helped me put another 3 sections of fence up in just under 3 hours. He's a work horse!

Kitchen tiled and grouted!

Exciting!














(View from hall way)















(View from loft)
The hall and front entry will be done next week. :)
Then someday it will be kitchen cabinets and countertops.

Merry Christmas-Main floor tile is in progress

Merry Christmas!!!

Yes, I actually decorate this year.....outside and in 2 rooms. The rest of the house is still in various stages of construction. (As y0u can see, I adopted another dog, Sadie on Halloween from a local shelter. She is a 4-5 year old Shih Tzu mix. She seems to have adjusted to her new home and gets along very well with Tawny, my 12 year old Poodle/Miniature American Eskimo mix.





They started prepping for tile on the main floor this week. This required pulling up more subfloor in some areas, patching and screwing subfloor down in others. This picture shows the hardiboard cut and ready to be installed.















Hopefully most of the tile will be down and grouted by New Years! :)

Upstairs loft family room is now livable!

Progress continues and I am very excited. The upstairs loft now has a kids corner,














lots of seating, my home office,














and entertainment options! As long as you can climb stairs, there is now a very relaxing space in my house. :)

June Interior Work

Mom has come down twice in the past month to help out with interior projects. We have focused mainly on painting and light installations.
Mom painted the ceiling in the master bedroom (some spots took 3 coats because this is where we sprayed the doors and there was a lot of over-spray on the ceiling) and helped me install a ceiling light/fan and a closet light.



















We also put a ceiling light/fan in the upstairs family room.



















We also sanded, primed, sanded again and painted the family room floor and stairs as a stop-gap until I can afford to install hardwood and carpet.



















Lastly we worked on the front door, which is now red! I still have to finish prepping and painting the door surround, but we are one step closer. :)

And there was light....after 5 months

For the past 5 months, I've been trying to the get the fabulous looking light I bought for the stairwell and the can light in the basement hallway to work. Ladders, multi-meters, pliars, etc have been used by many people to assist me in this undertaking. I mentioned it to my brother Ruel while talking about the progress on my house. He said he'd take a stab at it while in town this weekend. Well it took an hour, and we put his masters in electrical engineering from Standford to use, to figure out that the 3-way wire had a disruption it in and the can light was even connected to the switches.













As you can see after the line was put in someone cut it almost all the way through with just a small section of the outside covering remaining intact. We made a trip to the hardware store for the wiring and add more tools (dad'sDeWalt VSN Hammer Drill, a 2' (foot not inches) long auger bit, phishing line, flashlight, etc.) Four holes in the subfloor and 45 minutes later, Ruel caught a glimpse of a 2X4 cross brace, which explained why all our attempts to phish the line went to the left from the bottom and the right from the top.

































In the end, it was the utility knife, pliers and Ruel's brute strength that were needed to phish the line through the brace into the storage room and then we just had to feed it through the existing holes in the floor joists past the break to a new junction box we put in. Ta Da! Four hours later Phase 1 is done. (Sorry Kevin & Mel for the delay in getting to the hospital to see Declan. Obviously it took a lot longer than we originally thought.)




















Next I need to phish one more line down to connect the hall way light and we'll be done......with this project. :)

Little by Little

Mom and dad have come about every 6 weeks to help with painting, installing lights, etc. In between I plug away. Last weekend I put finishing touches on the front coat closet-installed the bar, added shelf paper and bins, hung the door and put the door handle on. I gained at least 12 inches in my closet for clothes now that the coats are out. Yeah!

The tarp is gone; Hello, garage door!

Not only does it look great, but the opener is fantastic. I can barely hear it.

Winter Views

With the help of a tarp, the house if finally enclosed and I am enjoying the views that motivated me to build up. The unfinished east and west rooms are a bit chilly so now I settle for the north and south ones. Check them out:









South towards Mt. Nebo















West towards Utah Lake & Oquirrh Mountains















North towards Mt. Timpanogos from family room















North from Dormer over garage

Brick-one step closer to a finished exterior

After we got the brick to the top of the garage door we decided to switch the plan and run the brick all the way up. I really like the way it turned out.

Colored Stucco & Doors Installed

The colored stucco was finished on Saturday. The brick and siding will be finished soon. The interior doors were also installed this week. Now comes the hard part--paint colors. :)

Stucco Prep & Texture

The sections that are to have stucco are all prepped, but the process has been held up this week with significant rain.

The sheetrock is up and all textured. Now on to the next step....Paint!!!

Moving Forward

It's amazing what can happen in just a few days- insulation














to drywall














to mud.



















The exterior is coming along as well.The stucco and Hadiplank siding are both going on.